Hardball in Vallejo, California

May 9, 2008

Cities and municipalities have been promising government workers
more in salaries and pension benefits than cannot possibly be met.
Unfunded liabilities are mounting and the ticking time bomb finally
went off. What had to happen, did. Vallejo California Declared Bankruptcy.

The
North Bay city of 117,000 now heads into largely uncharted territory,
as no California city of this size has ever opted for this route. “This
has been a long frustrating process for everyone,” said City Manager
Joseph Tanner. “There are no winners here tonight.”

My Comment: I disagree. Taxpayers of Vallejo are winners, perhaps more so than if a deal was struck.

After
about four hours of discussion and public comment from the
standing-room-only crowd, the council voted 7-0 to approve Tanner’s
recommendation to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection as a means to
reorganize its finances, which have been shattered by spiraling public
employee salaries and the plummeting housing market.

The move
allows the city to freeze its debts while maintaining city services.
Police, fire and other unions and many in the audience were outraged at
the move, accusing the council of poor leadership.

My Comment:
There was indeed poor leadership in Vallejo. Failed leadership is
decades old. Year after year Vallejo has agreed to contracts the city
could not afford. This move attempts to correct the error.

The
city and its police and fire unions held a final contract negotiating
session Sunday but failed to reach an agreement before Tuesday’s City
Council meeting.

The city and its public safety unions have been
at the bargaining table for about two years. The city is asking for its
police and firefighters to take salary, benefit and staff cuts, while
the unions say any further cuts would endanger public safety as well as
the safety of the police and firefighters.

My Comment:
Exactly how does a cut in pay or benefits endanger public safety or the
safety of the workers? Clearly it doesn’t. This was all or nothing
hardball by the unions and it could be a fatal mistake. Pension
benefits will now be under court review. Anything goes.

Vallejo
spends 74 percent of its $80 million general fund budget on public
safety salaries, significantly higher than the state average. The
generous contracts are the result of deals struck in the 1970s,
following a police strike that left the city in turmoil.

My Comment:
If I was a Vallejo taxpayer, this is what I would be asking: What
special talents does the firefighter and police force in Vallejo have
that merit “significantly higher than the state average” wages and
benefits?

The City Council had been split on whether to
declare bankruptcy. Some, including Mayor Osby Davis, said the stigma
would threaten the city’s long-term economic development and discourage
investors, while others said it would give the city time to restructure
its budget and offer protection from creditors.

What’s unknown
is whether bankruptcy will dissolve the city’s labor contracts, which
most City Hall staffers say is the primary reason for the city’s
financial mess. A judge will have to decide whether to dissolve the
contracts.

My Comment:
Taxpayers everywhere should be rooting for those contracts to be
dissolved. And if that happens, it will set a nice precedent for
renegotiating all unaffordable government contracts, which is to say
thousands of city and municipal contracts across the nation.

No Balls In D.C.

It’s a game of union hardball in Vallejo, but there are No Balls In D.C.

Please consider this Pentagon Threat: If Congress doesn’t act, soldiers will go unpaid.

Pentagon
Press Secretary Geoff Morrell briefed the press, starting with a
statement about the Global War on Terror budget supplemental request,
which is slated to go before the House this week. He said that
currently the military is borrowing form Army payroll accounts in order
to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that if the Congress does
not act the Defense Department will not be able to pay soldier,
including those in Iraq and Afghanistan after June 15, 2008. He said
the only options available if Congress does not pass $108 billion in
war supplementals would be for the Defense Department to petition
Congress to allow certain “re-programming” of other funds so that
soldiers don’t’ go without pay.

This is not about paying
soldiers, this is about inappropriate spending. And Congress does not
have the balls to do what needs to be done: Balance The Budget.

If the US government was required to have a balanced budget then this stupid war would not have been fought in the first place.

This is what I want Congress to do.

Keep paying the soldiers.
Stop paying themselves until they pass a balanced budget that includes future liabilities.

If
Congress wants a war or war funding then fine. At least have the balls
to raise taxes to pay for it. If we want to station troops in Europe
and Japan, same thing. If taxpayers were given a choice to invade Iraq,
station troops in Europe, and raise taxes, or not station troops in
Europe and exit Iraq, it is perfectly clear how everyone but the
neonuts would vote.

Want a bridge to nowhere in Alaska? Fine.
Hike taxes or cut spending elsewhere. There would be some easy choices
if Congress just looked at things like a household budget instead of
money growing on trees.

Ball-less neocon chickenhawks started
this mess, but they do not have the balls to pay for it. Ball-less
Democrats keep giving in to Pentagon threats such as the one presented
above for fear of being accused of not supporting the troops.

The
reality is the only way to support the troops is to bring them home.
The way to bring them home is to cut funding for the war and balance
the budget. There is no balls in Congress to do either.

Addendum

I was looking for this yesterday but could not find it.

“Joe A” just sent me the link.

City of Vallejo’s $100K-plus Earners

During
the calendar year 2007, there were 292 City of Vallejo employees who
had total gross wages of $100,000 or more. Find out who they were, what
departments they worked for and how much they made by searching that
database below.

The data was provided by the City of Vallejo’s Finance Department.

Click here to enter your own selection criteria.

$200,000 to $299,999

click on chart for sharper image

$100,000 to $199,000

click on chart for sharper image

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